Racing Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter says he faces a difficult 12 days as he wrestles with the weights for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.

Nominations for the two spring features closed on Thursday and with an increase in prize money came an increase in entries.

International entries for the Melbourne Cup rose from 31 in 2017 to 50 this year and from 22 to 27 for the Caulfield Cup with nominations received from England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany and Japan.

While Rekindling will not be there, last year’s winning trainer Joseph O’Brien has three entries, Ming, Latrobe and Master Of Reality, in both Cups.

The latter two are part-owned by Lloyd Williams who is chasing a third straight Melbourne Cup and are part of 16 horses he has entered, 14 prepared by Liam Howley, in both races.

O’Brien’s father Aidan, who trained last year’s Melbourne Cup runner-up, has 12 horses entered for the Melbourne Cup with four of the dozen also Caulfield Cup entries.

Germany’s 2014 Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Andreas Wohler has recent acquisition Torcedor entered for both Cups while Darren Weir, who won in 2015 with Prince Of Penzance, has 28 in the Melbourne Cup and 25 for Caulfield.

Chris Waller has 24 horses entered for Caulfield and 21 in the Melbourne Cup including Who Shot Thebarman who is in line for a fourth Cup run.